


Pueo

by Melethril



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Different Meeting, Alternative Universe - Task Force is formed differently, Gen, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-McDanno, Slow Burn, Team as Family, glacial
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-06-28 21:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15715551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: What if Steve's father died in a car accident before Danny came to the island? Steve only remained on the island for the funeral and took a few weeks off in order to make all necessary arrangements. No Task Force was created.After a long deployment and physically exhausting mission, Steve's team arrives at Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on December 7, 2011. Naturally, they go to the USS Arizona memorial to pay their respects. What happens next is definitely not what Steve expected and little does he know that these events would be the key to acquire the family he so desperately wanted.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> After dabbling with H50 for a bit now (primarily thanks to KatieTaylor), a bigger story has formed in my mind (I gave up scolding my muse for being absolutely unhelpful when it comes to focusing on one WIP at a time), and I wanted to share the prologue to see if there is any interest in a H50-AU story from me.
> 
> There will be OC's in this, but my principle when it comes to the genre of 'other characters in fan fiction' is that they remain just that. They support the main characters, and while they have their own lives and experiences that is known to the author and will be shared with the audience at discretion, the story is not about them. It's about the characters we love, which, in this case, is the H50 ensemble.

**Prologue**

 

“Danno!”

“Hey, monkey,” Detective Danny Williams, Honolulu Police Department, exclaimed, enveloping his nine-year-old girl into a big hug when she was finally back in his arms again.

“Daniel, how wonderful of you to join us,” said Rachel, and Danny cringed at her tone of voice. He was ten minutes late; closed homocide cases came with lots of paperwork and he could not just leave Meka to do it all by himself.

“I’m sorry; I got caught up at work,” apologized Danny, his lips pressed together. One year in Oahu and their relationship was still tense at the best of times. The primary reason for Danny’s pain stood right next to his ex-wife. “Stanley.”

“Thank you for coming, detective.”

If only the guy were a complete asshole, but he had actually tried to mend the fences between Rachel and Danny for Grace’s sake, which Danny could not help but respect. Yet, he was still the physical representation of Danny’s failed marriage, so that was as generous as he was willing to be. He took a moment to look around. It was December 7, 2011 and the area around the USS Arizona memorial was filled with people, most wearing suits making it all look very official. The only children at the memorial today were from Grace’s school with the children’s parents eagerly contributing to the suit brigade. Apart from that, Danny saw the occasional military uniform and some security detail. His attention quickly rested on a group of sixteen servicemen not wearing dress uniforms, but instead wearing their fatigues. They looked rough, only a few men were clean-shaven, while the rest wore beards, of which some were well kept, some less so. They moved in and out of synchronization as if forcing themselves not to move in formation. One of the men had a dog with him, which was surprising because Danny had not known that dogs were allowed on the premises. The unmuzzled, female Belgian Malinois looked completely at ease and was by her handler’s side. When one of the few guys in dress blues stepped away after saluting the wall with the list of names, he landed right in front of the group of men. His eyes widening, he stood attention so quickly, Danny could hear the heels clicking together. The serviceman in the front saluted and said something to the sailor who walked away.

“On December 7, 1941, a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy…” Ms Kaiwi, Grace’s history teacher began her narration, but Danny was too focused on the dangerous group of men. They were now facing the wall, all standing attention. What was obviously the commanding officer in the front – tall, dark and objectively handsome – took another step closer to the wall and lowered his head. They stood completely still for exactly one minute before they turned and stepped away without any obvious command from anyone. “So,” Ms Kaiwi continued. “How many years ago did this attack happen?”

Grace was one of the first to raise her hand.

“Yes, Grace?”

“Seventy years,” said his wonderful, incredibly smart girl.

“Precisely, well done. And that is the reason why so many people are here today and because many more people want to come here today, we can only stay here for one hour.”

Danny did not have the heart to point out to his daughter that the expensive private school Grace was attending was probably one of the few schools that received permission to come here today on such an anniversary.

There was actually a good chance that the kids would meet one or two of the war veterans who had survived the attack. Just as he finished that thought, there was a bit of a commotion at the entrance as five elderly men, most wearing Hawaiian shirts, entered the premises, flanked by a Navy-issued security detail.

The men he had observed before were already on their way out. Upon seeing the war heroes, they immediately straightened, and somehow managed to go into formation despite the number of people around them. Quite a few parents took their children to the side. The commanding officer took a step forward and saluted the veterans.

“It’s an absolute honor to meet you, gentlemen,” said the man, his voice low with a raspy undertone. The war heroes saluted and one of them was about to say something when all of a sudden, the dog barked. What happened next was too quick for even a trained detective to follow properly.

Like one big animal, the men moved before they split into two groups of eight of which one group stood around the war heroes and the rest, including the commanding officer and the handler with his dog, split into groups of four.

Danny took Rachel and Grace to the side and put his body in front of them, though he had not idea where exactly the threat came from. His blood ran cold when he heard somebody yell a particular sentence he had never wanted to hear in person.

_God is Great._

Not in English, unfortunately.

Panic spread like a wildfire, but the commanding officer’s voice snapped across terrified screams.

“Everybody stay calm! My name is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, SEAL Team 9, first platoon. We’re handling this. Please, stay calm. Ensign,” he barked at the guy who was part of the security detail protecting the veterans. “Petty Officer Mitchell is taking over. You will listen to everything he says. Mitchell and Davis will help you protect our heroes. Torres, Athena, find it! Marquis with me, Fire Teams Two & Three, evacuate. Torgerson, Che, Harper try to locate the threat, assist Torres.”

Somehow, the calm way he directed and handled the situation kept the panic from setting in properly, but Danny’s blood received a rush of adrenaline. In his best Officer of the Law voice, he decided to step in, “Okay, let’s do exactly as these highly trained gentlemen say and everything will be fine. My name is Detective Danny Williams, Honolulu Police Department. Let us all follow the instructions given by Fire Teams Two and Three, though we would appreciate if their commanding officers could also give us their names.”

If McGarrett’s initial authorative commands cut through the panic like a knife, Danny’s soothing and calm ‘cop voice’ managed to make the people more pliant and trusting. McGarrett’s gaze directly met his; the intensity in those dark eyes was breathtaking. The man gave him a respectful nod of acknowledgement before he looked at one of his men while his left hand made a sharp motion towards Danny. Then McGarrett focused on his tasks, obviously having decided that Danny with the two Fire Teams could evacuate without his orders or supervision.

“My name is Lieutenant Simmons,” said the African American, clean-shaven man McGarrett had just nonverbally communicated with. He seemed as calm as his CO, grasping Danny’s automatically outstretched hand. “This is Petty Officer O’Reilly. Our teams will get you out of here safely.”

There was no explosion yet as they managed to calmly move the people towards the exit. Grace was in her mother’s arms looking terrified, but Danny knew that – as much as he wanted to freak out and hold her close – it would only make the situation worse and put his daughter at risk. Therefore, and it was the hardest thing he ever had to do, he let Rachel comfort her while he made sure they got out of here safely.

Again, the dog – Athena – barked and ran towards a woman – brown hair, in her mid-twenties, wearing long clothes and a jacket – who looked absolutely terrified.

“Please, no, please!” She stumbled back, crying in sheer terror.

But the dog did not attack her; she just sat in front of her and barked.

McGarrett stepped forward and started talking to her, too low for Danny to hear. 

* * *

Steve, still cursing that they embarked the boat with only their sidearms, stood in front of the terrfied woman who had definitely not screamed the battle cry that would never fail to make his blood run cold. The screamer had been male and the coward had already left. He had not seen him clearly, but the woman here was not it.

“What do you know?”

“He forced it on me,” she whispered. “Please, he threatened to kill me.”

“I know, I _know_ this isn’t your fault,” said Steve gently. “Tell us what you have on you.”

“I… I… I don’t know. He attacked me from behind when I was on my way to the bathroom… He threatened to hurt me… He pressed me against the wall and I though he wanted to… but then he put something on me, I don’t know what. He said if I looked suspious when I left the boat, he would shoot me, so I didn’t… Please I don’t wanna die!”

“You won’t, okay, you won’t. You see this dog here? This is Athena. She loves people and she knows you’re not trying to harm her or her team, so let her sniff out what he gave you. Can you do that? Do you know where he put the device?”

“My back… in my bra.”

“Okay,” said Steve calmly. “Please turn around. I’ll have to take off your shirt.” That made her cry and Steve felt like the dirtiest bastard on the planet. “You’re safe, we’re not going to touch your skin, alright? As soon as this is over I will cover you up. The moment this is over, I will covery you up.”

Gently, he removed the shirt from the victim who was still crying and shaking like a leaf.

“You’re safe,” murmured Steve. As the shirt finally revealed the explosive (timer, 90 seconds remaining on the clock, definitely C4, amateur wiring), which was somehow hooked into the bra catch, he indicated for Torgerson to defuse it. Next to Simmons, he was the best-trained expert for explosives on the platoon, so instead of telling him what to do, he stepped in front of the girl and continued to talk to her. “What’s your name?”

“Emily,” she answered. She lifted her hands to keep the shirt from falling down.

“Emily. Please, just focus on my face. We found the device. Petty Officer Torgerson will defuse it like that,” he snipped his fingers, which was the signal for his men to help with the evacuation instead of remaining within the range of the blast. “And we’re all going to walk out of here. Does that sound alright, Emily? What made you come here today?”

“My daddy was Navy and was stationed at Pearl for two years. I wanted to pay my respects,” she sobbed.

“That’s great. I came here to pay my respects to my grandfather and his fellow sailors who went down with the Arizona in 1941.” He looked at Torgerson who was calmly dissecting the device. He did not look worried, but then he never did.

“Really?” She barely shifted but the shirt fell down revealing swelling and soon-to-be bruises around her neck and shoulders. It took all of Steve’s self-control not to show just how angry he was. Emily just cried. The distinct _click_ of wires cut apart by a knife had Steve look to Torgerson again who took a step back before he exhaled in relief and nodded.

“Petty Officer Torgerson just inactivated the device,” explained Steve. “We’ll remove your bra, so that we can take it from you. Is that alright?”

Emily shook her head, “Please, don’t.”

Steve slipped out of his jacket and covered her front, “Nobody will see, okay? Nobody. We’ll take the device and I’ll cover you up. We won’t look.”

Finally, she nodded and they worked quickly. She was covered in his jacket within seconds, and Torgerson bagged the device swiftly. Emily fell into Steve’s arms as she cried and cried and did not seem to be able to stop.

“I’m sorry this happened to you,” whispered Steve, his arms enveloping her fully. “You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

* * *

 

The evacuation worked without any trouble. Points to the Navy for organization as the boats that had originally brought the visitors now calmly removed the people from the platform. The calm and confident air that the SEALs conveyed was worth their weight in gold (which had to be considerable because both Simmons and O’Reilly were built like tanks) as they removed the people from the premises.

They were just loading the next boat when Simmons came up to Danny and O’Reilly.

“That was McGarrett on the phone. Package is secure; the woman was used as a piggyback ride. She’s pretty shaken. The hostile likely left shortly before or after chaos ensued.”

Danny exhaled, feeling shaky. O’Reilly looked as immovable as a mountain.

“Thank God!” He looked over to Rachel and Grace whom he had refused to leave out of sight and gave his ex-wife a thumbs-up. She looked close to tears, but managed to remain calm for their daughter’s sake; a wave of deep affection for Rachel overcame him.

“That your girl?” asked O’Reilly… or rumbled. The man had a deep voice.

“Yes.”

“Fuck, man, you got balls of steel. No wonder McGarrett trusted you on sight.”

“I’m sorry?” Danny looked up to the giant bear in front of him.

“He had you take over the evacuation, didn’t you notice?” said Simmons with a grin. “You didn’t give us orders, but you organized it all, we just followed your lead as per his command. I can count on one hand the number of people McGarrett trusts with the lives of his team, and I guarantee you that this kind of trust was built over years and not within a minute. You’ve got some mad skills, man.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On their way to the dock, Danny has the opportunity to briefly talk with McGarrett. Both need to get ready for the debriefing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your kind encouragement! This means a lot and is doping for my muse.
> 
> I planned on updating on Friday, but realized that this chapter is too short to deserve a full week before I post the next chapter. This is more of an interlude than anything.  
> Next update will be this weekend, either on Friday or Saturday.

**Chapter 1**

By the time they were on the boat back to shore, Honolulu PD and what seemed like the entirety of Pearl Harbor’s military personnel was assembled at the dock. McGarrett and the SEALs who had not already boarded previous boats were still spread out for safety reasons, but they were relaxed and attentive, obviously not expecting a second attack, but ready for it if necessary. Danny had his arms wrapped about Grace and he was not going to let go off her any time soon. McGarrett walked in between groups of frightened civilians and clamly spoke to anyone who had questions.

“Detective Williams?” McGarrett’s low voice had him turn around. There was the hint of a smile on his face. “I’d like to thank you. You’ve been indispensible today and I hope HPD will commend you for your brave actions today.”

“Thank you, McGarrett. What’s happening now?”

“There’ll be a debriefing. My team, you and I will be giving a report to our superiors. Emily,” his gaze shifted towards the young woman who had been forced to carry the device. Her arms were currently wrapped around the dog, Athena, and she did not look like she wanted to let go any time soon, “will be getting some medical attention. NCIS, HPD and later the FBI will be squabbling about jurisdiction and then we’ll see.” His voice gentled as he looked at Grace. “Hi there! I’m Steve. I just wanted to tell you that your daddy is a very brave man and a hero. His quick actions saved a lot of people today.” He then offered his hand, which Grace took carefully after looking to Danny for permission, which he gave freely. She smiled and offered her name in return. Out of the corners of his eyes, Danny could see just how hesitant both Rachel and Stan were about the tall, dangerous individual in front of them.

“I know. Danno’s the best.”

A wide, strangely goofy smile was the answer. “That he is.”

“LT, who’s waiting for us?” Straightening a bit, McGarrett’s question addressed the man who had practically materialized behind him and the freaking ninja still knew he was there.

“You’re not gonna like it,” said Simmons.

“The Secretary?”

“Him too, yes.”

McGarrett closed his eyes in despair.

“It’s been seventy years since the attack, what’d you expect, sir?” asked Simmons and Danny frowned in confusion. “There’s a whole lot of big shots waiting for the big ceremony this afternoon. Fu…” Simmons interrupted himself as he glimpsed at Grace, “Heck, the president was supposed to come and visit in three weeks. Somehow I doubt this is going to happen now.”

“We carefully calculated the time we could spend here,” McGarrett protested weakly. “We had an hour in and out before any of them could even come close.”

“Yeah, I’ll mention that to the next hostiles we meet,” Simmons chuckled. “Just to answer your question: we have the Secretary of the Navy, two O-10s, five O-9s, seven O-8s and eight O-7s waiting to be debriefed. Captain Carlson then started laughing so hard, he did not give me any additional information on the number of lower ranked commanding officers present.”

McGarrett buried his faced in his hands, groaning.

O’Reilly, who was in near vincinity, just laughed. “Smooth Dog is going to have to suffer through another Rose Garden Ceremony.”

“Continue that and I’ll insist on backup,” McGarrett warned, not sounding at all serious, just chagrined.

“What does that mean?” asked Grace. Just like McGarrett’s face earlier, O’Reilly gentled considerably.

“That means, sweetheart, that Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett will brave anything except for formal events,” he replied. “And ‘Rose Garden Ceremony’ means that he’ll be meeting with the president.”

“Don’t you like the president?” frowned Grace.

Steve laughed, “No, no, no. I have the highest respect for the man and his office. He’s my Commander in Chief. He’s a really nice man, too. I just feel that these kind of honors should go to the heroes like the men you saw earlier today… the elderly gentlemen with the Hawaiian shirts,” he added with a smile when he saw her frown in confusion. “Athena was the one who warned us, Torgerson was the one who made sure nobody was hurt. Your daddy and my men made sure you were able to leave safely today. They deserve the honors, and I’ll make sure they receive them, but as I was the one barking orders, they’ll give me a bigger medal I don’t deserve.”

Grace, bless her heart, did not buy it, “But you were responsible for everyone, so you should get the biggest reward, because if something went wrong, you would have taken the blame, right?”

McGarrett looked taken aback and Danny kissed his daughter’s forehead gently. O’Reilly laughed out loud, “She’s got you there, sir.”

“You might want to call your family, man,” was the only reply, but his smile was less chagrined and a bit happier; his back had straigthened just a tiny bit.

“Already did. Jenny cried on the phone, but they’re all very proud. Sandra told me that the kids had quite a scare, but they’re glad we’re all okay.”

“I’m sorry,” was all McGarrett said, looking at his petty officer directly.

“Don’t worry; they are used to it. And we could not anticipate that we would have to deal with a terrorist attack. Imagine if we’d decided not to follow you. Wouldn’t have been able to forgive ourselves.”

“Thank you, petty officer,” was all McGarrett replied, sounding solemn. He obviously wanted to say something else when Simmons handed him a radio.

“Yes, sir,” said the CO of the SEAL team as he stepped away, putting the radio to his ear.

O’Reilly made a noise of inquiry to which Simmons merely said, “Captain Carlson.”

“Your boss?”

“Yes. Good man. He wants to make sure we know what’s facing us. They cleared out a gift shop nearby where we’ll be given some dress blues. Not ours, but at least we’ll be more presentable than looking like…”

“Something the cat dragged in?” suggested a man named Harper that made Grace giggle.

“So, have you just come off a mission and conicidentally decided to come here today?”

“Pretty much. We arrived at 0500 this morning at Hickam Air Force Base. We realized the date and McGarrett said he would go pay his respects before hitting the sack and, given that our mission finished two days early and therefore not even the spouses and partners who do not have to worry about schooldays won’t be arriving before tomorrow, we decided to go with him.”

“When was the last time you slept?” asked Danny, finally able to notice their obvious exhaustion. At first, he had misinterpreted it as adrenaline crash, but now he had the feeling that the weariness ran deeper.

“On the plane, most of us had at least a few hours of shut-eye,” said Simmons. “McGarrett barely slept… too many reports. We all need to rest.”

“The captain agrees with your assessment,” interrupted McGarrett as he returned. “But we need to give our after-action report today. Mitchell and Davis have managed to organize some dress blues. Anyway, we just earned ourselves four additional weeks of R&R, gentlemen,” he continued, high-fiving a cheering O’Reilly who was joined in by Simmons.

“Thank you, Captain Carlson!” exclaimed Harper putting his hands together in gratitude.

The boat finally came to a stop, McGarrett quickly exchanged phone numbers with Danny, so that after reporting to their respective superiors, they could find a way of arriving as a united front for the actual debriefing. The lieutenant commander then quickly retracted his steps in order to help Emily get off the boat. Torres and Athena already flanked them before O’Reilly, Simmons and Harper joined them. Right down at the dock, Danny saw Meka, but he also noticed that the rest of the SEAL platoon stood right in the front, awaiting the arrival of their two COs and the rest of their team.

“Are you alright?” asked Meka, his eyes wide and worried, as soon as they disembarked. While Danny was ensuring his partner that everything was fine, he could not help but witness the reunion of the SEALs who were patting each other’s shoulders and exchanged hugs until an older gentleman arrived. As the men stood attention, he waved them over to the giftshop Steve had pointed out to him. Some EMTs from Tripler were taking care of Emily; a Navy security detail was standing by.

“I think we should go, Daniel,” suggested Rachel; she had not spoken much on the way back. Today’s events had naturally terrified her. “The school is assembling over there. We’ll be giving our statements and will go home as soon as possible. I’m taking Grace.”

“Okay, but can I please come and see her tonight?” begged Danny quietly, and Rachel reluctantly agreed, obviously still in shock.

He looked to the retreating backs of his ex-wife and her new husband who was carrying his baby girl. Smiling, she was waving goodbye to Danny until they disappeared in the crowd. In this moment, he hated Stan so much he could feel bile rise to his throat. He hated the fact that Step-Stan could spend as much time with Grace as he wanted while Danny, her _father_ , had to beg for every single moment he could scrap. Seething, he approached Captain Tanaka.

“Williams, care to tell me what happened in there? We’ve only heard bits and pieces so far and the Navy’s playing it very close to the chest.”

Taking a deep breath, he gave his report.

* * *

 

Steve was quite surprised to discover that Chin Ho Kelly worked in the giftshop that had been redecorated to a Navy dressing room. Kelly had been one of the first people to react to the crisis and had apparently helped Mitchell and Davis organize everything including the installment of temporary Navy headquarters. Kelly was also receiving a lot of dirty looks from members of the HPD and Steve wondered what this was all about. He had not seen Chin at his dad’s funeral, but then, given his apparent beef with the HPD, that was not really surprising. The only person in HPD uniform looking happy to talk to Chin was a young, female junior officer Steve did not know. She was standing outside with Chin and was therefore too far away for closer inspection except fo the fact that they looked related and their interactions indicated familiarity between the two. As much as he wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, he had other responsibilities.

His men were tired; he could see it in the way they moved and got dressed. The adrenaline crash was always worse when you were tired, and today, they were exhausted. Their mission had officially ended less than twenty-four hours ago and after a rather weighty mission schedule in the past twenty-two months with this last one being the mentally and physcially most taxing one, they had not expected their first day on semi-official vacation to start like this. The only one who seemed cool about it all was Athena and, in extension, Torres. Steve felt the exhaustion creep into his bones like a virus; he could go on for a bit longer, but he had to rest and soon.

Another indiciation for their exhaustion was the fact that they had to help each other slipping into their respective uniforms. Not for the first time, Steve missed Freddie. Not that he did not respect his friend’s decision to become a full-time dad, not at all, but without Freddie, there was this power gap looming over him, which made him more detached from the rest of his team. As 2IC, Freddie used to ground him with a simple touch or a pat on the back; he certainly would have helped Steve getting ready for this. As much as he appreciated LT Simmons, and as informal as the man was off-duty, they did not share the same personal and professional partnership he used to have with Freddie. Besides, Simmons tended to pair up with O’Reilly outside of combat situations and Steve was not about to mess up that dynamic. He loved all of his men with a ferocity that would likely scare them if they knew, but after Freddie’s departure he had started to experience the loneliness of being responsible for all of them; and their lives were so incredibly precious and he hated the thought that he could lose them.

“You need assistance, sir?” asked Mitchell, already clad in some borrowed uniform that fit well. The Petty Officer First Class would spend twelve of their upcoming sixteen-now-twenty weeks of shore leave at the Naval Station Newport for OCS; Steve already looked forward to calling him Ensign Mitchell; it would be a joy to train him as a future platoon leader because he certainly had the brains and the skill to become an exceptional commanding officer.

“Thanks, Mitchell, I’m fine. Good work, by the way, organizing all of this and protecting our heroes,” said Steve as he finished the last touches on getting dressed.

“Thank you, sir. Mr Kelly was a great help; really serene personality; remained calm under exceptional circumstances.”

“That he is,” Steve confirmed, but before he could elaborate, Captain Carlson entered the premises and he stood attention, which was automatically copied by the rest.

“Please, gentlemen, don’t even think about it. McGarrett, a word.”

Together, they stepped away, while his men continued to get ready.

“How’re you, son?” Carlson asked as soon as they were out of earshot. “Unlike the rest of the people waiting for your report, I know what your last couple of months looked like. This is not my idea of R&R.”

Steve smiled in return; he appreciated Carlson and felt a deep level of respect for the man. The captain was calm and had a surprising sense of humor. SEAL Team 9 had been his idea, his baby, and while he had two O-5s under him for mission-oriented organization, he protected his men like a lioness protects her cubs. He was loyal to his men and expected them to be loyal to SEAL Team 9, which was a Coronado-based SEAL Team composing of six platoons that was dedicated to long-term missions ranging from intelligence gathering, reconnaisance and surveillance to assault, detention of hostiles and rescue operations. They usually investigated multiple persons of interest at once and the platoons were always ready to apprehend them if you had a promising lead. They were officially considered Tier 2 operators, but their work was as important as that of DEVGRU. They were usually the ones providing DEVGRU with the necessary intel for their most prestigious missions. Ultimately, that had led to the inofficial slogan of SEAL Team 9:

_DEVGRU may get all the glory. We do the job._

“McGarrett?” Carlson’s worried tone had him focus on the here and now.

“Sorry, sir,” Steve apologized for his temporary distraction. “I definitely need a full night’s sleep, preferably tonight, but I’m ready for the after-action report.”

“Alright, son. Let’s go. The sooner this is over, the faster you can go and rest. You’ve met most of these men before and they are very grateful for your team’s actions, so there is no need to be intimidated. You’ve already met our current and previous president as well as every O-10 who’s currently present, so this is child’s play for you. Your team will be commended and adressed, but you’ll do the talking. Now, on our way to our provisional debriefing room, tell me all the details you remember. As far as I know, HPD is already with the higher-ups. They’re still hashing out details with the FBI, but I think the deputy director is going to be included in a conference call.”

“Yes, sir. On our way there, we should briefly talk to Chin Ho Kelly and the young officer who’s with him. I wonder if they witnessed something suspicious.”


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny participates in the debriefing with the Navy, FBI, HPD and the governor. The outcome is quite surprising.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your continued support of my story, I read every single review with enthusiasm and I enjoy every Kudos I receive. 
> 
> I'll probably post the next chapter in a week.

**Chapter 2**

Danny felt mildly underdressed, though he wore his regular shirt and tie, a dresscode he was now grateful for. Nevertheless, he looked like some New Jersey banker on his lunch break compared to the highly ranked officers whose chest adorned more commendations than he could count or recognize.

The only HPD officers in the room were Danny, Meka, four more detectives and Captain Chan Tanaka, which was not much compared to the Navy who had apparently provided a whole squad of their best and finest. A freshly elected and rather irate Governor Denning was talking to, whom Danny vaguely recognized as, the Secretary of the Navy. It probably did not look good on your resume if a terror attempt happened during your first month in office, especially given that Governor Jameson had just lost the elections due to (unverified) rumors on corruption.

The door opened and Captain Carlson entered with McGarrett’s team.

They no longer looked like a ragtag group of dishonorable discharges in those dress blues. Instead, they looked like the elite force they were; this time, they moved in sync with the ease of years of working together and trusting each other. Some were still unshaved and looked like they had spent too many months in the jungle, but in general, they looked very presentable; especially McGarrett who looked like a more badass version of James Bond. They lined up and stood attention without a word. Even Athena appeared to sit in attention.

“At ease, gentlemen. Commander, step forward,” said one of the guys with the biggest number of shiny medals. McGarrett obeyed immediately.

“We owe you and your team a great debt. Your quick thinking and actions have saved many people today and prevented panic. Well done.”

McGarrett saluted – it seemed wrong somehow, but Danny could not put his finger on why it would seem wrong to see McGarrett so stiff and obedient – and replied, “Thank you, sir. However, our primary thanks should be to our K9 unit: Petty Officer Torres and Athena. Without our MWD, we would not have been able to react in time. Also, I highly commend the actions of my team who acted swiftly, independently and proved yet again that they deserve to be called Navy’s elite. Moreover, without the help of Detective Danny Williams, we would not have been able to prevent mass panic,” he indicated Danny, obviously having already mapped the entire room and aware where everybody was. “His calm and collected actions, despite having his daughter in the room, deserve the highest recognition, sir. I would also like to call in former Detective Chin Ho Kelly for the debriefing as well as Officer Kono Kalakaua, the first HPD officer on the scene, both of whom have helped my men organize everything and their quick actions prevented further panic.”

There was a moment’s silence, then the man who had been addressed directly looked to Captain Carlson, “Damn, you really know your men, Captain.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” was the amused reply.

“Nothing will prevent you from getting promoted to senior level after this, Commander, but given that Captain Carlson has indicated just how essential experienced commanders and platoon leaders are for SEAL Team 9, you won’t be separated from your men just yet.”

If at all possible, McGarrett stood a little straighter, but that was just to cover up the exhale of relief that escaped him, “Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” another one of Navy’s top dogs objected. “There’ll be a medal pinned on you, whether you want it or not; we just don’t know which one yet. We’ll be checking the rule book to investigate what you can receive from today.”

McGarret thanked them again, his expression neutral but his eyes urgent.

“Back to the matter at hand,” one of them said, seemlessly reading McGarrett. “Ensign Banks, please send for Chin Ho Kelly and Officer Kono Kalakaua, while we begin with the debriefing.” A guy standing by the door saluted, turned and left the room. Danny did not know Kelly personally, but there were rumors about him; you could not work at HPD for more than a year and not know the story of former Detective Chin Ho Kelly. He knew Kono personally, though. Most experienced police officers refused to work with her because she continued to associate with Kelly, so Danny and Meka had taken her under their wing whenever she was not assigned to another team. She was young but possessed good instincts. While it was not a very smart move career-wise, Danny appreciated her loyalty to her disgraced cousin. Nevertheless, up until now he had never actually talked to him, despite having worked with Kono on and off for almost six months.

“Let’s begin.”

“Yes, sir.”

After they connected to the deputy director of the FBI via videoconference, McGarrett gave a very detailed report on their ride to the memorial (nothing extraordinary) and their time at the memorial before mayhem ensued. He mentioned that Athena had apparently smelled and immediately warned of nearby explosives. “I’m speculating here, but she likely smelled it the moment Emily entered, which indicates that the boat she was in arrived after ours. Since she was abducted and coerced into participation on the boat, I would suggest that it was the boat leaving dock at 0930, but we’ll have to check the initiary to make sure. As soon as Athena warned us, the platoon split into two squads, of which LT Simmon’s squad rushed to protect the most likely target: the war veterans and survivors of Pear Harbor. Only then, the assailant shouted his message.” Captain Carlson lifted his hand and McGarrett stopped.

“Let me add here that I trust Lieutenant Commander McGarrett’s judgment unquestionably. He is as much an expert in that field as can be expected from a man in his position. His claim will be verified, but I’m asking you to treat his report as fact. Please, continue.”

“This was not a terrorist attack,” said McGarrett and roaring silence followed that statement. “Let me clarify; this was an act of terrorism but not an act of what’ve come to think of when we hear the term ‘terrorist attack.’”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Commander, but the assailant screamed the words _God is Great_ ; we have heard this from multiple eye witnesses.”

“You are correct, but the assailant mispronounced the words so badly, there is no way he was a native speaker; in fact, the mispronounciation was so distinctive that I can tell you that the assailant was male, between 25 and 60, Caucasian, either an American or Kanadian citizen and a native English speaker.”

“How about a convert?”

“Converts tend to overpronounce certain syllables, no matter how bad their linguistic skills are. They’re trying to emulate what they believe is the culture, not eviscerate it,” contradicted McGarrett. “Nevertheless, the possibility cannot be excluded. While I don’t think this was an act of Islamic terrorism, I cannot discount the possibility.”

“I’m addressing this question now to your men as well as you, Detective Williams. Did you have the same impression as the lieutenant commander?”

Not surprisingly, McGarrett’s men mostly confirmed the impression, though admitting that they were not entirely sure given the adrenalin rush that followed these particular words.

“Detective Williams?” asked one of the high-ranking uniforms. He was slim and tall, his back straight despite his age.

“This is the first time I’ve heard the words in person; I cannot judge it. However, from what I’ve seen of McGarrett, I doubt he would have spelled it out this clearly unless he was absolutely sure.”

“Thank you, detective.”

Danny did not miss the thankful nod McGarrett offered. He replied with a nod of his own.

“Alright, McGarrett. Does anything else speak for your hypothesis?”

He had not finished asking this question when the door opened and Kelly entered together with Kono.

“Yes, thank you, Ensign, perfect timing. Detective Kelly,” one of the detectives in the room bristled at McGarrett’s formal address. Danny recognized him as one of the guys who often associated with Sergeant Cage from IA, but because worked were differently on this island, that did not seem to have any impact on his popularity within the department. “You were the first to respond to the mayhem. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?”

“There was a man, about 6 ft tall, white, slim but fit, moved like a local but could be from out of town. There were quite a few people who jumped into the water because they were afraid, but this guy, he swam ashore and walked away without approaching anyone,” replied Kelly.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” asked Detective Kilauea sharply. “Why didn’t _you_ stop him?” With that, he aggressively addressed Kono. “Since you were buddying up with the dirty cop anyway.”

“I did not point the suspect out to my cousin, so she couldn’t have known,” was Kelly’s cold reply; his eyes were as cool as his tone. “And I could not apprehend him without you busting me for being a vigilante.”

“Oh please,” sneered Detective Palakiko. “You were probably the fake terrorist, so you could pretend to be a hero.”

Before Kelly could say anything, McGarrett stood right in front Palakiko; how he had moved across the room so fast was a bit of a mystery. Palakiko was broader than and almost as tall as McGarrett, but there was no question which one of them was more dangerous.

“So, you believe that Detective Kelly boarded the boat leaving at 0930, assaulted Emily in the bathroom by grabbing her from behind and pressing her against the sink, standing so close that she was convinced he was about to rape her, then forced her to stay still as he planted a bomb in her bra, as if she didn’t already feel violated enough, then forced her onto the memorial, announced the attack, jumped out of the memorial and into the water, then swam ashore and arrived in time so he could organize the rescue op with my men and his cousin.” McGarrett’s tone was a mixture of cold fury and pure mockery. “I would not accept such a ridiculous story from an officer right out of the academy. This hypothesis is a disgrace to the HPD and I really hope Captain Tanaka won’t let such idiocy slide.”

The silence that followed spoke louder than words. Captain Tanaka looked furious, most of his fury for once directed at the source of incompetence and not the person pointing it out.

“Out, Palakiko,” ordered the man. “Report to my office, tomorrow at 8 AM sharp. Kilauea, you too. Apologies, gentlemen,” he addressed the Navy top-shots. Once the doors closed behind the two detectives, Kelly appeared to be in shock.

One of the admirals decided to lead the conversation back to the reason why they were meeting in the first place. “Alright, so let us assume that this was not an act of Islamic terrorism. What do we do? As McGarrett correctly pointed out, this was meant to cause terror and panic; it severely traumatized an innocent woman and quite a few children and would have caused serious harm had it not been for your quick actions. How do we find out who’s behind this?”

“I’d like to make a suggestion,” said Denning. “I’m fully aware that what will now follow is a discussion on who’s taking the lead in this investigation. My suggestion is to create a multi-agency Task Force specifically created to get to the bottom of today’s events.”

The Secretary of the Navy agreed with this suggestion immediately making it quite obvious that this was the discussion he had just had with the governor, “I agree and given that the attack was aimed at _the_ symbol of the US Navy, I believe that the lead should be with the Navy.”

Carlson turned towards the Secretary, “I will gladly take over the lead in this investigation, but I dearly hope you’re not suggesting my men, sir. They are currently on well-deserved R&R before they are back on the usual alternating training-mission schedule. I won’t ask them to give up their time off duty for this investigation.”

The entire platoon stepped forward as one.

“Sir, you don’t need to ask,” said Simmons.

“No, no way,” said McGarret, his voice brooked no argument. “You go home. Your families are waiting for you. Captain Carlson, I offer myself as either leader of the active Task Force, a simple Task Force member or Navy liaison, whichever task you think will be the most appropriate.”

“This is not my idea of granting you vacation, Commander,” objected Carlson, but he sounded like he had already accepted the offer. McGarrett’s smug look said it all.

“Do you have any experience conducting a proper police investigation, McGarrett?” challenged Danny.

“No,” was the honest answer. “However, I know how to hunt down people who terrorize others for pleasure, money and power. I say we work together on this for optimal outcome.”

“Thank you very much, but I already have a partner,” Danny sniped, a bit angry with the man who obviously took it for granted that he was included in this Task Force. “And I’ve investigated plenty of homocides associated to crime families in my time back in New Jersey, thank you very much. In fact, I have over ninety homocide cases under my belt. Ergo, I’m by far more qualified to participate in this investigation than you are.”

“I’m more than willing to be no more than a consultant and have you lead the investigation if you wish,” suggested McGarrett, the hint of an amused smile on his lips.

“Wait, what? No! No, I don’t want to lead this investigation. I don’t want to be part of this investigation. In fact, there are few investigations that I have less of an urge to conduct than this one. Multi-agency Task Force always sounds nice, but usually they are nothing more than size comparisons and ego trips that will ultimately make my job so much harder. Besides, while you’ve shown that you come in handy in a crisis, we don’t need Rambo to charge in and save the day. This will take weeks, possibly months, not some GI Joe ‘come in guns blazing’, ‘shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more and then when everybody's dead try to ask a question or two’ approach.”

McGarrett genuinely laughed at that, “Okay, first: Rambo and GI Joe are both Army not Navy. If you want to mock SEALs, please reference Under Siege because that movie is a disgrace to every SEAL on the planet. Your last quote is from Wild Wild West, so I’m not even going to comment on that. Second, my team’s entire job is what you just described.”

“He’s right,” Captain Carlson butted in. “Working multi-agency cases, long-term investigations and missions is their entire job description. If anything, McGarrett is the most qualified person in this room to make this Task Force work. If you, Mr. Secretary, give me oversight over this mission, I will appoint McGarrett as leader of the Task Force as well as give him permission to appoint members at his own discretion.”

“Granted,” said the Secretary of the Navy promptly. “However, the governor will certainly insist that the HPD should help with this investigation.”

“Help?” Captain Tanaka exclaimed. “Now wait a minute…”

“Sir.” McGarrett now used his considerable height to command the attention of Danny’s boss. “Here’s how this usually goes. The motto of SEAL Team 9 is to never leave a man behind. This motto extends to our collaboration with agencies. If we succeed, HPD and the governor’s office will receive full credit for the investigation with some passing mention of NCIS and other Navy liaisons. If we fail, I will personally take full responsibility.”

That was unexpected and yet, it made perfect sense if you took into consideration that the man probably obtained too many concussions playing Rambo… or Casey Ryback. It did not matter though, because Tanaka was already sold on the idea; the verbal agreement that followed less than ten seconds later was entirely unnecessary.

“Very well, McGarrett,” said one the admirals. “You have full support from Naval Intelligence, so there is no need for backchanneling, no matter how good you are at avoiding the paperwork. I also urge you to hire and/or consider a member of NCIS as well as one member of the FBI for your Task Force.”

“Yes, sir,” smiled McGarrett, looking delighted. “I already have two people in mind for these tasks: NCIS agent and Lieutenant Commander Kayla Turner, former NI junior officer with an excellent reputation. We’ve worked together in the past and I appreciate her candor, intelligence and experience as an investigator.”

“I’ll have her come in by tomorrow morning. Anyone else?”

“I would like to call in a terrorist expert to cover our bases; preferably somebody whose initial focus was on other crimes. Therefore, if he has time and is currently in the country, I would like to have FBI Special Agent Hamid Farzad on the team. He’s highly reliable, thinks outside of the box, is fluent in more than five Middle Eastern languages and his focus used to be on cults before it was decided that he was a better match for his current line of work.” The slight tension in McGarrett’s jaw indicated that he was not happy with it.

“His heritage has nothing to do with his specialty,” defended the deputy director falling head-on into the trap offered by McGarrett, and, granted, the SEAL did not appear to be a half-bad interrogator.

“Did I say anything about his heritage, sir?” As if nothing had happened, McGarrett continued. “Hamid Farzad is a non-combatant, though he’s used to working in the field and keeps a clear head under pressure. Additionally, I would like to call in a civilian expert who practically wrote the book on profiling and is one of the most brilliant people I ever had the privilege to work with: Dr. Maja Hill from UC San Diego.”

That name meant something to McGarrett and his team because one of them, Harper, flinched, which was instantly covered up by the men standing next to him.

“I will hand in the request. If they agree, I will make sure they fly in as soon as possible. Please give me a list of alternatives by tomorrow 1030.”

“Yes, sir,” McGarrett addressed Carlson.

“So, we have Navy, FBI, a civilian. What about HPD?” asked Tanaka.

McGarrett turned and looked straight at Danny. Part of him was not surprised at all because their battle of words was not even close to being finished; another part of him was surprised because he had the impression that a man like McGarrett did not like being challenged.

“You don’t think you’re wrong very often, do you?” asked Danny, hands on his hips, a strange mixture of annoyance and amusement flodding through him.

“I cannot afford to be,” was the plain reply.

“Okay, fine, it seems like I have no choice. Somebody with at least some sense needs to be on this team to keep you from doing something stupid,” he huffed. “But I’ll never be the ‘jump – yes, sir, how high?’ type no matter how much you want me to be. I won’t ever stop harrassing you about following proper procedure and I absolutely refuse to become part of a SEAL assault team. That being said, we’ll get the bastard who hurt Emily.”

“I didn’t expect anything less from you. Your partner is invited to join us, of course,” said McGarrett, a friendly expression on his face as he looked at Meka.

Meka’s expression was absolutely torn. It was obvious that he felt awful for not immediately standing by Danny’s side, but he also really, really did not want to be involved in this.

“It’s okay,” Danny soothed him gently. “This is a bit above our pay grade. You should use that time working on those cold cases you’ve been complaining about.”

“That _I_ ’ve been complaining about, Williams?” asked Meka, still feeling bad but also relieved that he did not have to join. “Alright,” he conceded after a beat, gladly accepting defeat.

“I want more than one HPD member on this case. Any other suggestions?” asked Tanaka, addressing McGarrett who did not miss a beat.

“Officer Kalakaua.”

“What?” Apparently, there was an _a capella_ group lost on HPD because Tanaka’s baritone perfectly matched Danny’s and Chin’s exclamations of disbelief.

“She’s been a cop for only a year!” Tanaka shouted.

“Petty Officer Mitchell has commended her actions on the scene earlier and thought her to be an asset. Moreover, it can only be beneficial for her future to work on a multi-agency case so early in her career. So, Officer Kalakaua, if you’re willing, I’m more than happy to include you in this Task Force.”

Kelly immediately stepped between the SEAL and his cousin, looking furious, “She’s not getting involved in a case that will make or break her career.”

“What career?” McGarrett countered cruelly, even though he was not wrong with that assessment. “From what I’ve seen, half of HPD doesn’t talk to her; the rest gives her a hard time for being associated with you.”

Things happened very fast after that. Kelly’s right hand formed a fist, flew towards McGarrett and a second later, Kelly was on the ground. Kono immediately stepped forward, but froze when Athena started to growl; an entire SEAL platoon looked ready to step in.

“Athena, down!” McGarrette ordered sharply; the dog obeyed immediately. “He’s safe, just angry,” he continued softly in order to soothe the animal. “Chin, I like you, you’re a good man. I want you in.”

“What?” asked Kelly, as he got up slowly to show he no longer meant to attack.

“You’re protecting your own. I get that. You have years of experience on the force, so you would be the perfect counter-balance to Kono’s youth.”

“Are you kidding me? Kelly is no longer a member of HPD,” Tanaka protested.

“Why? What did he do?”

“He was accused of stealing money from the HPD Asset Forfeiture Locker. He never admitted to doing so but decided to leave HPD. There is proof,” he added.

“Obviously not enough for a conviction,” muttered McGarrett, then he addressed Kelly. “Did you take the money?”

“What?” Kono’s cousin exclaimed.

“Did. You. Take. The. Money?” Dark eyes stared down one of the least readable faces Danny had ever seen. Kelly’s eyes widened at the question before he denied the allegation with a resounding ‘no’.

“Good enough for me,” McGarrett decided. “If you want to, you’re in.”

“Why would I?” hissed Kelly. “Nobody is gonna thank you for it and I don’t want to be accused of obstruction of justice.”

McGarrett’s gaze did not waver, “Because this gives you the opportunity to apprehend the next guy who roughs up young women. Because you will improve this Task Force and, as such, increase our likelihood of success. Because you know that joining is a unique opportunity for your cousin and the only way for you to wear a batch again.”

Danny had the sudden wish that this case would take long enough so that he could interrogate McGarrett on his unique approach of putting a team together; for all matters and purposes, this full-on, ‘head-through-the-wall’ approach should not work, but as the tension left Kelly’s shoulders and Kono visibly relaxed, Danny had the feeling that this might just be the perfect recipe for success (though it could also be an outstanding recipe for disaster, so he had to wonder how McGarrett knew which way it would go).

“Captain Tanaka, with your permission, I would like to have Officer Kono Kalakaua and Detective Chin Ho Kelly on my Task Force. Think of it this way: if we fail, it’s your lost causes that messed it all up; if we succeed, well, then it’s thanks to the work of HPD.”

Again, getting Tanaka to agree to that was a no-brainer.

The admirals looked highly amused by their commander’s approach. Both the Secretary of the Navy and Governor Denning seemed a bit unnerved by the entire display, but they did not complain.

“So, we have seven people in this Task Force: three from HPD, one from NCIS, one from the FBI, a civilian, and you. You need two more people, preferably somebody who can be out in the field,” said Carlson. As if they had been waiting for their cue all along, McGarrett’s men stood attention. Their leader’s back was turned, but it seemed as if looking at them was unnecessary.

“Mitchell, I fully expect to call you Ensign Mitchell by the time our leave is over, so there is no way you’re in. Torres, Kona is waiting for you, so no. Everybody else: we’ve been away for too long. While I appreciate your loyalty, don’t make me explain to your partners, spouses, parents and children why you could not go home despite being stateside. Please, take a step back to retract your offers.”

All but two stepped back. Torgerson, the explosives expert who shared frightening similiarities to a bear both in terms of hair and size, and Hayes, who also wore a beard but it looked well-kept and his stature was more similar to McGarrett’s though he was leaner, were the only ones remaining. McGarrett turned around, saw who was still standing there and smiled, not looking surprised at all.

“Captain Carlson, the Task Force will be supported by Petty Officer First Class Mark Torgerson and Petty Officer Second Class Geoffrey Hayes,” said McGarrett, looking very proud.

“And Athena, MWD,” said Torres. “It was her last mission, sir, and I’m not going to take her to Coronado. She doesn’t need to see who’s replacing her. Her closest bond next to me is to you and Hayes. She should be part of the Task Force.”

“Sounds good to me, Torres,” said McGarrett, clicked his tongue and the Belgian Malinois obeyed instantly by sitting right next to him. “I’ll take her to my house tonight. If she’s unhappy there, you’ll take her with you and she’s off the Task Force.”

“Sure, sir.”

“We’re meeting tomorrow at 0900 at the base; make sure to bring today’s after-action reports and your flight manifests. I want you all home by tomorrow night. You’ve done excellent work this morning, gentlemen,” he praised them. “You’ve made your country proud.”

He did not say ‘dismissed’, but he offered a hand gesture that had the platoon up and moving, though they first saluted the admirals before leaving the room.

“I’ll bring Athena’s and your pack as well as my report, sir. I should be back in about three hours,” promised Torres before he left with the others, which earned a ‘thank you’ from McGarrett.

The next part of the meeting was primarily on logistics (the governor would provide them with the rooms, the Navy would provide the equipment), their next official meeting with Captain Carlson, Tanaka and the governor (tomorrow at 1030 at Pearl Harbor), ‘good-lucks’ from the higher-ups (because the remembrance ceremony would start soon and the Secretary of the Navy had to first give a statement without going into specifics, including an announcement that, due to the boat and the memorial now being evidence in the investigation, the memorial was closed for the near future), some coordination (HPD would deal with the crime scenes and witness statements today; the Task Force would begin their work tomorrow; Duke Lukela would be the direct HPD liaison, which was a relief because he was a fair soul that never gave Danny or Kono a hard time for being a _haole_ and Chin’s cousin, respectively) and ultimately, some pleasant conversation with the newly formed Task Force (mostly banter and McGarrett making sure Athena had not come to mistrust Kono and Chin). Altogether, the meeting took two and a half hours and after suffering through an adrenalin crash and this rather exciting meeting, Danny could barely keep his eyes open by the end of it. McGarrett decided that they should go for something to eat before any of them tried to drive, and Danny found out that the man was as local as you got as a Caucasian; his pidgin was flawless and he spoke actual Hawaiian like a native. His father had been a Sergeant of the HPD and Chin’s former training officer. Mark Torgerson on the other hand was born and raised in San Francisco; he was the silent type, but when he spoke, people listened; Hayes, born and raised in some small town in Nebraska, did not like the name Geoffrey and therefore insisted on being called by his family name. He was more talkative than Torgerson, but it appeard that being stoic and quite non-communicative was a bit of a SEAL-thing. For all that McGarrett had demonstrated his eloquence when he needed to justify his choices or had a goal that could only be achieved by talking, he was definitely not the heart-to-heart type; what he was very gifted at though, was putting everyone at ease and, despite everything that happened, by the end of their late lunch break, there was a rapport between them that had Danny think that this could work. McGarrett was crazy, but Chin and Kono had such ease with each other, it was absolutely natural for them to partner up. On the other hand, he had to question their new boss’ sanity with his next choice.

“You want to partner up with _me_?”

“Obviously.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“We are six people in the field. Chin and Kono, Mark and Hayes, you and me. It’ll work out just fine,” was the confident reply.

“And what precisely made you think that our partnership will work out _fine_ , McGarrett?” asked Danny, seething at the sheer nerve of the guy.

“Your kid was in the room, Danny.” The New Jersey native had the sudden urge to hit him. “You hated every second you were away from her, yet you did it because it was the only way to protect her. You wanted to hold her close and say ‘screw everyone else,’ but you didn’t. Your voice was the only thing that soothed the people in the room. I want you as my partner because I need somebody like you… Somebody to tell me that I’m about to run off a cliff. Somebody with the experience and calm to deal with this case like a cop would.”

Danny laughed harshly, “ _Calm_. I’m not _calm_. I’m the complete and utter opposite of _calm_. I am a rational human being with a natural aversion to being shot at, which is probably a concept that is foreign to you, but the more sensible human beings among us believe that pissing off captains of police departments and governors is not the best strategy if you want something from them.”

“They liked us just fine,” interjected McGarrett, which caused Danny to snort loudly.

“Tanaka looked ready to murder you and the governor wasn’t too impressed either. The only reason you received this mission is because you have the backing of the Navy…”

“Which is the only backing I need,” he interjected yet again, and Danny lost all patience.

“Do not interrupt me when I’m speaking. It’s rude. Were you raised in a barn? Or did the Navy annihilate any sort of manners you had to have been taught as a child? Your mother must’ve been appalled the first time you returned from overseas.”

The atmosphere in the room shifted so quickly, Danny knew he had said the wrong thing. Chin shook his head, the SEALs looked tense and McGarrett’s face was utterly unreadable.

“My mother never saw me return from overseas; or watched me graduate from High School for that matter, Danny.”

Now Danny felt like a complete and utter asshole, and deflated instantly, “I’m sorry, McGarrett. That was unforgiveable. Some detective I am, not even noticing that you only spoke of your father and not your mom…”

“Don’t worry, I get it. Our morning was quite stressful after all,” was the instant reply, obviously unwilling to hold onto a grudge for something Danny could not have technically known. “Look at it from the bright side, there were no bullets flying around.”

It was almost as if McGarrett enjoyed pushing his buttons, because Danny was not too far gone not to recognize an opening when he saw one.

“There is no bright side to a terrorist attack, whether of Islamic or other origin. There is no bright side to a bomb. Although, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that you SEALs look at the bright side of such things. You probably have a rating system in place…”

“Actually…”

“Forget it, I don’t want to know.”

Just as Danny went into detail just how ‘brightside-less’ this morning had been, Torres arrived with his report and the packs for Steve and Athena. Apparently, this was also Torgerson’s and Hayes’ cue to leave.

“You’re not joining them?” asked Chin after they left.

“No,” was the plain answer. “We’ve been living on top of each other for months. They need to decompress and that’s impossible with the superior officer nearby. I’ll go over to my parents’… to my house.”

“Well, we better get going, too,” suggested Kono rising from her seat. “We have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Besides, the surf report for this afternoon sounded pretty good,” grinned McGarrett.

“You got me there,” she grinned cheekily.

“ _Makani 'olu'olu e kai malie_ ,“ smiled the SEAL.

“Aww, so poetic, boss. _Mahalo_ ,” was the happy reply. Chin did not say much, but he nodded, his gaze lingering on McGarrett.

“ _Mahalo_.” His thanks went far deeper than thanking McGarrett’s for the well-wishes. A solemn nod was the answer. As soon as the door closed leaving only McGarrett and Danny behind, his new partner leaned into his chair, his eyes closed.

“Tired?”

“Dead on my feet,” was the answer and it sounded very sincere. “I really need to get some sleep.” With that, he grabbed his phone.

“What’re you doing?” asked Danny.

“Calling a cab. Don’t have a rental yet, and there is no other way for me to get to my house,” explained McGarrett.

“Yeah, no,” the New Jersey protested. “No partner of mine will call a cab to go home. You’re coming with me. It’s getting late, so I want to go home as well. If you feel up for it, I would first like to check in on Grace. What?” The tall man was looking at him with an expression that was far too soft for the conversations they had had up until this point.

“Of course. Feel free to contact her. _Mahalo_ , my friend.” With that McGarrett rose to his feet, grabbed both packs and looked at Danny expectantly. “I hope you don’t mind two sailors in your car.” He indicated the packs, which looked absolutely meticulous similar to the uniform McGarrett was wearing.

“No problem,” said Danny, trying not to appreciate the view that presented him as the lieutenant commander walked towards the exit. The uniform did not fit perfectly, but that did not have any negative effect on what he was seeing.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny offers to drive Steve home, but he gets to see Grace first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the continued support of this story.
> 
> Please note that I won't be able to update on September 7 & 14, so the next update will likely be on September 21.

**Chapter 3**

McGarrett whistled in appreciation when he saw the Camaro.

“That’s a beautiful car, man,” said he.

They managed to get all the gear into the trunk; McGarrett and his freakishly tall legs put the passenger seat as far as back possible so that Athena could fit between his legs. All set up Danny drove off. He dialed Rachel’s number who picked up rather instantly.

_“Daniel.”_

“Hi Rachel, I’m sorry, but the debriefing took far too long. Anyway, I’m on my way now.”

_“I’m not sure whether this is a good idea, Daniel. Today scared her.”_

“And because it scared her, it’s important that I can come and see her _today,_ Rachel,” Danny argued, already getting agitated. From the corner of his eyes, he saw McGarrett frown.

_“Look, Daniel, I understand that you want to see her, but as her mother…”_

“She’s my daughter, too, Rachel! Please,” he hated begging, but when it came to Grace, there was nothing he was too proud of doing, “ _please_ , let me see her.” A hand on his shoulder had him stare at McGarrett who made a demanding gesture towards the phone. “Hold on.” Too angry and desperate to even think of squabbling with meddling lieutenant commanders, he just gave him the phone. Glaring ahead, he focused on the road and listened to the one-sided conversation.

“Ma’am? This is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett… Yes, exactly. Danny has helped us tremendously today and I apologize for taking up so much of his time. His thoughts were always with your little girl and I’m sure that Grace would like to see her father before she goes to bed, just so she can be absolutely sure he’s safe, too… I know how it is to have a parent in law enforcement. I always looked up to my father for the sacrifices he made, but there were evenings I could barely go to sleep because something scary happened on the news and I just wanted to make sure he was fine. Today must have been very frightening for her and seeing her dad will calm her down rather than agitate her, I guarantee you…. Thank you.... Yes, I am. Ma’am, please don’t worry. I promise I’ll stay in the car. Thank you, ma’am.”

He hung up the phone, “It’s okay. You can go see her.”

If doing so did not threaten to crash the car, he would have reach over and hugged the other man. “Thank you, Steve.”

“Don’t mention it,” was the soft reply. The tall man leaned back, closing his eyes. “I didn’t lie to her. I know Grace needs to see her for her own peace of mind.”

There was a moment of silence before Steve spoke again, “So, what does a homocide detective from New Jersey do in Hawaii?”

The rest of their journey was a detailed list on everything that was just plain wrong on this island and why he hated this pineapple-infected hellhole. Steve argued certain points, but he seemed rather amused and at peace with himself.

Grace was already standing in the driveway when they arrived, while both Rachel and Stan stood by the gate. Danny stopped the car, rushed out and enveloped his arms around his girl with no intention of ever letting go.

“Danno!” she said, hugging back just as tightly.

“How’re you, monkey?”

“Good. I was a bit scared this morning because everybody seemed so worried, but I’m okay now,” she replied with the serenity of a nine-year-old. “Is that Steve?”

As promised, Steve had not attempted to leave the car, but Grace’ exclamation made that decision null and void. Danny told his new partner to leave the Camaro. The door opened, Athena jumped out, and was followed by the lieutenant commander’s freakishly long legs.

“Hello, Steve!” said Grace, but her eyes were trained on Athena, happy to finally be near a dog again after Pooch (as baby Grace had creatively renamed Tucker when she was about two) had never made it past quarantine.

“Grace,” Rachel immdiately admonished her daughter. “Manners, please!”

“No, no,” said Steve immediately. “I introduced myself to her as Steve. It’s all fine.” Athena was firmly by his side. “Hi Grace.” His tone of voice softened and there was a careful yet dopey smile on his face that should not make the highly capable sailor look like a young boy.

“Can I pet her?” asked Grace, her eyes still on Athena.

“Of course. Athena loves kids,” was the instant reply and he gave Athena a signal that transformed her from a focused, serious dog to puppy as seemlessly as Steve had transformed from SEAL to boy just a moment earlier. Rachel worriedly took a step forward when Athena approached Grace fast but with a wagging tail that spoke of excitement. Grace, well trained in dealing with dogs, held out her hand, which Athena sniffed before she whirled around and sat by Grace leaning against her leg.

“She likes you,” grinned Steve, dopey smile at full display.

Grace beamed at the lieutenant commander and then asked, “Does she know how to play fetch?”

“Does she… of course, she does. Wait here,” with that, Steve went to the trunk, reached for Athena’s pack and with one practiced move pulled out a green dummy. Athena perked up, looking even more dog- and less sailor-like than before.

“This is Leisure Time Dummy. She’s only getting that one when she’s having time off. Since it’s her time off, you can go and play with her. If she’s rushing you, just say ‘Athena, be gentle!’ and she’ll lay off, okay?” With that, he handed Grace the dummy. Athena was a great dog, though and, instead of rushing Grace, she sat down, waiting happily. Grace threw the dummy, but unlike Pooch, Athena did not move, though she obviously wanted to. Her gaze was on Grace who automatically looked to Steve.

The man was a very subtle dog handler, because his right hand held Athena in position, while with his left he taught Grace the hand signal and verbal command she needed to have Athena fetch the dummy. “She listens to either one, so just try it out.”

Not five minutes later, they were inside of Stan’s gigantic park of a yard and Grace was squealing with joy.

“I didn’t realize she was missing Pooch so much,” said Rachel, all adults standing next to each other watching the scene unfold. “She never said.”

“She probably did, but so many things were changing in her life that she never really had time to realize that she missed what I assume was your family dog” suggested Steve, which did not fail to anger Danny’s ex-wife and, while he agreed, Danny could not help but wince.

“Excuse me, Commander, but this is none of your business.”

“Mrs Edwards, I’m only speaking from experience. After my mother died, my father sent my sister and me to the mainland. She was sent to an aunt in California, while I went to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. A lot of things happened at once and, there I was, graduating from the academy and fighting with tears in the dressing room because I had no time to grieve for my own mom before that. Moving from one place to another, it puts a lot of stress on children. This isn’t a reproach aimed at you or your husband, just a fact.”

That effectively shut Rachel down, and she nodded, the threads of guilt dancing in her eyes.

“Athena, what’re you doing?” Gracie’s call had them all focus on the kid. Athena seemed to be running towards the house, stopping and then walk back, repeating the motion.

“Show-off,” muttered Steve under his breath, looking amused. “Grace, she wants to show you a trick. For that, we need to work together. You see that canopy?” Grace nodded serenely, “It’s too high up for her to jump, but she wants you to throw the dummy up there.”

“What, but you just said…”

“Trust me. Here’s what we’re going to do. I will run towards the canopy, when I say ‘go’ you tell Athena to go fetch and throw the dummy up there, okay?” They needed two attempts, because Grace’s first throw was not good enough. Athena did not even run, obviously having anticipated it. Steve was incredibly patient, gave Grace a tip on how to throw the dummy further and more precisely, and the second time, it worked like a charm. Steve charged, said ‘go, go, go!’, Grace told Athena to fetch and threw the dummy precisely where she wanted to. Athena sprinted towards a crouching Steve, used his shoulders as a launching pad, and managed to catch the dummy in flight, which had Danny cheer and Stan and Rachel clap. Athena then jumped right into Steve’s arms, which caught the approximately 50-pound dog effortlessly. Athena immediatelly went to Grace in order to hand over her dummy looking decidedly smug. Steve shook his head in amusement.

“Typical SEAL, that girl,” said the man. “Always needs to make sure she measures up even if there’s no competition.”

“Did you just call yourself a show-off, Commander?” asked Danny, delighted and amused. “I will not let you live down this one, you know.”

“I’m aware,” Steve smiled, his eyes soft and fond.

They continued to watch the happy girl and even happier dog playing around, but at some point, Danny saw that the day had taken its toll on Grace, but just before he could ask them to stop, Steve clicked his tongue and Athena obediently trotted over.

“Athena had a great time, Gracie, thank you for spending so much time with her, but now she needs to rest a bit. She’s had a couple very strenuous days and needs some sleep.”

“’kay,” was Grace’s reply. Athena leaned into Steve, before lying down on the ground, her head on the grass and her eyes closed.

“You can go and pet her if you want,” said Steve. “She likes to cuddle when she’s tired.”

As if on cue, as soon as Grace lowered herself on the ground next to Athena, the Malinois’ head was in Grace’s lap. She gently caressed the dog before she looked at Steve.

“I like her name. Isn’t that the Goddess of the Hunt?”

“ _Artemis_ was the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, Forests and Hills, the Moon and Archery,” Steve replied, his face enthusiastic. “Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom, but she was important in many other aspects of life. She was also the Goddess of courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill as well as the patron goddess of many cities including but not limited to Athens. She was known to help many Greek heroes including Hercules and Perseus to fulfill their quests. In a way, she was the patron goddess of heroes, like your father.”

“Is that why she was named Athena?” asked Grace. “Because it’s her job to protect your team?”

Steve beamed at her, “Very perceptive of you. That is exactly why her breeders called her Athena. Now she’s retired, though.”

“Why? She doesn’t look old,” Grace protested.

“That’s true, but she’s six years old and the next time we’re ready for another mission, she’ll be seven. She deserves an early retirment, I think,” answered Steve. Danny absolutely _loved_ how the man talked to his baby girl. Steve was obviously not a parent and appeared to be a bit hesitant, almost shy, around children, but he spoke to Grace on eye-level and took everything she said very seriously. Also, his ‘nerd face’ was adorable. He would tease him for that one.

“I think you’re right,” said Grace. “So, she’s yours now?”

“We’ll see, actually. We’re trying things out at the moment.”

“I hope she stays with you, so that I can see her.”

They had not said anything about Danny partnering up with Steve, so why Grace would jump to that conclusion was a mystery to all of the adults present. Steve helplessly stammered through a reply, so that Danny literally had to come in and save him from his daughter’s expectant gaze, “We’ll see, monkey, okay? Now, I think it’s time for you to eat dinner and go to bed early. You have a normal school day tomorrow. I’m picking you up from school on Friday. How does that sound?”

Instead of replying, Grace hugged him before she bent down and hugged the dog, which had apparently acquired the ability to sleep within seconds. Athena tiredly but enthusiastically wagged her tail in happy anticipation of the girl’s affection.

“Goodbye, Athena. Bye, Uncle Steve.”

The sound that escaped his new partner tugged at Danny’s heartstrings.

“Bye, Gracie,” replied Steve, his voice hoarse. Grace then hugged her father, oblivious about the fact that she had just scrambled the SEAL’s brain with her easy affection, and ran towards the house.

“I didn’t…” At a loss for words, Steve helplessly looked to the other adults.

“Okay, so we need to talk to her about Stranger Danger when a dog’s involved,” said Danny nonchalantly.

“I don’t think it counts given the extraordinary circumstances in which she met the commander,” Stan butted in. “You must seem to her like one of the safest people on the planet; after all, you kept her safe this morning, you arrived with her father and you’re wearing a uniform. You tick every box for safety.”

Steve still looked speechless, but he nodded. After exchanging some remarkably civil pleasantries with his ex-wife, the bane of his existence and his new partner, Danny returned to the Camaro.

“She called me ‘Uncle Steve’,” commented the SEAL, looking stunned.

“If you don’t want her to, I’ll talk to her,” offered Danny, but was instantly shut down by the other man.

“No, no, please, it’s fine. I just… I’ve never been an uncle before.”

“So, your sister doesn’t have kids? Your men don’t have any either? I had the impression that some of them, especially O’Reilly, are fathers.”

“Yeah, no. My sister has no kids. Most of my men have children, and O’Reilly’s daughter Jenny’s our oldest, sixteen. However, given that I’m basically the physical representation of why their fathers cannot be with them more often, they don’t generally look to me as an ‘uncle’ kind of guy. Some of them like me well enough, because their fathers do, but they don’t see me often enough and when they do…” Steve swallowed dryly, his eyes haunted and Danny nodded in sympathy, already knowing what would come next. “It’s usually not for good news. I hope to change things with Samantha, Freddie’s girl, but I won’t be seeing her much except on her and her dad’s birthdays.”

“Who’s Freddie?”

“Lieutenant Commander Freddie Hart, my second in command up until last year. He went to the Reserves after his girlfriend-now-wife Kelly told him she was pregnant. She gave birth to a baby girl last year.” He took out his phone, and showed Danny a picture of a cute baby. “That’s Samantha. Freddie asked me to be the godfather, but…” he sighed. “Didn’t seem fair to me, you know? I’d hardly ever be there for her, and once she’s old enough she’ll start worrying for my safety like Jenny worries about her father, even though she’s so, so brave about it. I can’t do that to Samantha. So, Kelly’s brother is now her godfather. They even live very close by. I’ll just… be Freddie’s old buddy from the Navy and maybe, if I can make the visits a regular thing, she’ll call me Uncle Steve one day, too.”

Danny’s insides decided to turn into knots as his heart clenched. The longing in the man’s voice was brutal. Before he could say anything on the matter, Steve leaned further back and muttered, his speech slurring slightly from exhaustion, “Sorry, didn’t mean to whine. Just… tired. Haven’t slept in… shit, I can’t tell you.” His eyes closed, “I’m just gonna close my eyes for a little bit.” It seemed as if meeting Grace had taken the last bit of energy reserves out of the man and Danny barely managed to get an address out of him. By the time he turned into the main street, Steve’s breathing had evened out and he was sound asleep. Danny knew the address and he knew that driving there would take about one hour, which would be awful for Steve given that the first cycle of sleep usually took 90 minutes. Therefore, he took few extra turns in order to make sure that Steve was in the waking phase upon arrival. By the time he stopped the car, Steve shifted slightly, but was still asleep. He looked very peaceful and absolutely exhausted. Knowing better than to wake up a war veteran by shaking him, especially with a sleeping MWD nearby, he called his name softly instead, “Steve, we’re here. Come on, buddy, time to go to a real bed.” All he received was a grumble, and the SEAL turned to the other side. “Steven. Hey, babe, time to wake up.” Slowly, eyes opened and he looked around in confusion. Danny could practically see the wheels in his head starting to turn. Covering his face before he roughly scrubbed it, Steve sighed, “Sorry, Danny. Jesus, I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“You probably should, but you should do that in an actual bed. You got anything at home? Food, water, anything?”

“A neighbor is taking care of the house,” explained Steve. “She promised to get some milk and other groceries before I returned, but she didn’t expect me until tomorrow, so probably not. I don’t need food, just a bed.”

“Right, because I’ve seen you eat and I think you burn calories when you’re sitting down on a couch doing nothing. Tell you what, you go take a shower, I get you some essentials. Then, you eat something and go to sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll pick you up so we arrive at Pearl in time.”

Steve stared at Danny, speechless, “I can’t ask this of you.”

“Luckily, and to quote your guys, you don’t have to ask. I’m offering it to you for free. Well, not for free, I’m expecting you to pay me back for the stuff I buy, except for that pack of Longboards, that’ll be a gift.”

Steve’s lips twitched, his expression was open revealing nothing but gratitude and warmth.

“Thank you.”

* * *

 

Steve was very proud of himself. He managed to set one foot in front of the other without collapsing, which had to be considered an achievement. Athena did not leave his side, obviously feeling his exhaustion. He could not remember the last time he had been this bone-tired. Today had taken the last bit of his energy reserves. If only he had time to sleep on the damn plane. Yet, he would not exchange today’s events for the world. Sure, somebody got hurt and they had a bad guy to catch, but that was his job, his calling. Instead, he had found… He should not be thinking about this. He had a good feeling about the Task Force. Carlson probably doubted his sanity, but he trusted Steve to make good decisions, so he reserved judgment for now. He would be monitoring them closely, though, because Steve’s choices had been exotic at best; nevertheless, his gut feeling told him that he had made the right decision, and, while he had made bad judgment calls in the past, he had never been wrong about something that felt absolutely right.

_Uncle Steve._

The one thing he had not anticipated was Danny, and in extension Grace. Those two had sneaked under his skin with frightening ease, and Steve was absolutely powerless to stop it. Hell, he knew Danny for less than a day, and he was already a serious contestant for a ‘father of the year’ award in Steve’s eyes. The man had traveled almost five thousand miles just to be able to see his daughter on a regular basis. His first and last thought was for Grace. If Steve had any power in the justice system, he would make sure that nobody could ever separate these two ever again, and make sure he either received full or at least joint custody, because to only have ‘visitation rights’ was a cruel and unusual punishment for the kind of man Danny was.

And Grace was amazing. She was smart and compassionate, and had definitely inherited her father’s gift for reading people like a book. She had also Athena wrapped around her little finger, which was impressive; sure, she loved children, but she rarely acted so playfully around them. Then, for some reason, Grace had called him ‘Uncle Steve’. It was embarassing how much he wanted to hear that again. He could get used to it.

His mind a complete mess and his body a wreck, he still somehow managed to force himself into the shower. Mrs. Parker had bought bare essentials ahead of time, so there was soap and shampoo. He scrubbed down in three minutes (some habits were hard to break no matter how tired you were), then he stumbled out, brushed his teeth, remembered to feed Athena and set the alarm on his phone (just to be on the safe side), and the next thing he knew, the first rays of sunshine woke him up. Looking around confusedly, he realized that he had stayed in his old bed, though he could have taken the master bedroom. Athena was sleeping on the rug next to his bed, but looked up attentively when she noticed that he was awake.

_Home._

It was a weird thought. He had stayed in his parents’ house after his father’s death, but usually, he thought about ‘the house’ rather than ‘home’. Now though, as the Hawaiian sun gently told him to get up, he smiled in return; at the same time, his throat closed up. Years of missing Hawaii, missing home, caught up with him in this moment, and he could barely keep it together. He clenched his jaw, swallowed dryly and rose to his feet with determination. Tomorrow, he would start with his usual workout in the morning. Today, his body had needed the rest, but that was the only leisure he would grant it; he could not afford to be lazy, not if he wanted to stay fit. Then he heard sounds from downstairs and was instantly alert. Given how calm Athena was, the ‘intruder’ had to be a friendly; and there was really only one option given that his men did not know the address to his house. With a sigh, he went to the bathroom, got ready and then dressed for the meeting with his platoon and later with Captain Carlson and the governor by putting on his own set of dress blues (primarily because it was the only set of clean clothing he had left). He also made a mental list of things he needed to do around the house (topped by doing the laundry ASAP), and carefully folded the borrowed dress blues in order to return it to Pearl with a note of gratitude.

“You know, breaking and entering into a house that contains a MWD and a SEAL with their internal clock shot to hell is not a particularly good idea,” said Steve casually as he entered the kitchen.

“Well, babe, then you should set up some sort of security, because anyone could just walk in here,” said Danny with what Steve suspected was an unusal amount of enthusiasm in the morning. “By the way, I brought coff…” he continued as he turned to look at him and froze. “Wow. That,” he vaguely gestured up and down Steve’s frame, “you’re wearing more medals today.”

“That wasn’t my uniform yesterday, we had to improvise. Couldn’t present ourselves to the admirals wearing our fatigues.”

“Ah, I get it… Does this,” again he indicated Steve’s uniform again, “work with the ladies? Mind if I borrow it sometime?”

Steve grinned, “I’ll hand in a request, but I’m pretty sure you’d look ridiculously short in mine.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” Danny deadpanned. “Very funny, I’m laughing. Do you hear me laughing? No? Well, maybe the joke wasn’t even a three on a scale from 1 to 10. I don’t think it’s even on the scale. For your information, that joke was very, very weak.”

“Give me coffee and I come up with a better one.” After taking a sip, he said, more soberly and sincere, “Thank you for everything last night and today. I owe you.”

“You’re my partner. Or, you forced yourself into my life as a temporary new partner until we get the bastard, so this is what you get. You’ll be a free man once this Task Force has fulfilled its tasks and is filed under ‘the real-life version of the Avengers’ or ‘a bunch of strange people working together for a common goal and bringing justice.’”

Steve did not want to explore the way his heart clenched at the mere suggestion that this was a temporary gig. Of course, this was temporary. As soon as this was over, he would somehow convince Carlson that this counted as R&R before he assisted some other platoon until his men were back from their own shore leave and they had to return to the regular training-mission cycle. He had heard rumors that one of the DEVGRU squadrons needed a lieutenant commander and that he was being side-eyed, which automatically would lead to Freddie’s reactivation for SEAL Team 9. That could not happen. He would not allow it to happen. Therefore, he had to make sure that particular mission was over and done with before the Navy seriously thought to bring out the big guns (read: DEVGRU). First thing he needed was more intel. Working on simple scuttlebutt was not good enough; not ever but definitely not when it came to Freddie’s potential reactivation.

Only one more year and Freddie would be able to officially retire from the Navy. Then, Steve would take a longer R&R period, perhaps here on Hawaii. Or traveling around the world; perhaps to some place he had not seen yet (not that there were many). Visiting Aunt Deb and Mary sounded really good, too.

“Earth to Steve, are you there?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Steve shook his head, annoyed with himself. “Strategizing is all. I still need to write my after-action report, but I can do that when we drive there. Let me show you the house.”


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This team is finally starting to get together. Danny learns a few things about SEAL team leader Steve McGarrett.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for updating so late. Thank you so much for the support.

The house was quite charming, though not particularly lived in, but that was not surprising given its only occupant was here for the first time in months. Its location was absolutely stunning with its own private beach. The story behind the house was sad though… Steve did not sound bitter about the whole thing, but his grandfather had died before he could watch his two children grow up in the house he had built and the next generation had a couple of years of peace before the death of Steve’s mother had cruelly ended that period of happiness.   
“Will you live here throughout your time on R&R?” asked Danny as he watched Steve get ready for his meetings.  
“Yes,” was the answer after hesitating briefly, which indicated that this was not the whole story.  
“So, how many months do you have? And does this include your time on the Task Force?” Danny continued his interrogation as they stepped into the Camaro.  
“My team is on leave for twenty weeks now, so five months.”  
“That includes the extra month you earned for your actions yesterday?” asked Danny, which Steve confirmed instantly. “So, do you have the same amount of leave as your team?”  
“You already know the answer to that, otherwise you wouldn’t be following this line of questioning,” Steve replied, eyes shifty.  
“Oh, I absolutely know the answer, but if you think I’m doing to be distracted by your pitiful evasion tactics you’re seriouly underestimating my skills as a detective. So, how many weeks do you have?”  
“Hard to say,” replied Steve. “Depends how long this case will take.”  
“Let’s say we have it cracked by next week,” Danny suggested relentlessly.  
“In that case, about three to four weeks,” was the honest answer.  
“Less than a month of R&R? You nearly collapsed yesterday,” Danny argued, worried though unable to point out what upset him specifically. But then, Steve was his (temporary) partner; it was his job to worry about him. He was good at worrying. If worrying was a discipline at the Olympics, he would win a medal hands-down.  
“Well, that’s why I would give myself at least two weeks before returning to active duty.”  
“Why can’t you just return with your guys? Give yourself those five months? What about Athena?”  
Steve hesitated at that, “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that Torres agrees with you and that was his way of keeping me on the island for the time being.”  
“But you don’t intend on listening to him?” Danny frowned. There was something he was missing and he intended on getting the information as long as his new partner’s defenses were still down. He had the feeling that this would not last long.  
“There’ve been a few transfers in recent months. Some experienced junior officers were promoted to senior and are therefore no longer as active in the field. We had one transfer from the SEALs to NI, more than five to other Navy departments and four transferred to the Reserves. They either need to cut down on R&R of active CO’s or they need to recall some of the guys they let go. Given that there is usually a good reason for these transfers, often very personal ones, I’m offering to be traded in early.”  
“I see,” said Danny, once again trying to get a grip on the man he was dealing with. After a moment of consideration, he remembered the conversation he had with the man yesterday when exhaustion had completely eroded Steve’s considerable emotional walls. “You don’t want Freddie to be reactivated.”  
Steve froze and stared at Danny in complete and utter astonishment. The New Jersey detective watched as realization dawned slowly when the taller man’s brain likely started to supply yesterday’s conversation. Instead of commenting, the SEAL cursed under his breath.  
“I’m pretty sure your former second in command wouldn’t want you to run yourself ragged in his name,” Danny suggested. “He was your partner.”  
“Well, he also doesn’t want to die in action and leave his daughter fatherless; that’s his first priority as it should be.” Steve sounded so sure and Danny could not help but continue that logic, “So, my life’s more precious than yours because I have a kid.”  
“I value my life,” replied Steve instead and Danny’s temper rose to the surface like a volcano in this God-forsaken state.  
“Okay, I see. I’m going to say this once. If you want this partnership to work, I want to be absolutely sure that not only do you value your life but also that you’ll do everything in your power to keep it. That means no heroics, no stunts, no needless risks. As you’ve noted correctly, I’m a father and I want to see Grace grow up, but I won’t accept you giving your life simply because you think it’s worth less than mine because you don’t have children. That is not an acceptable answer. Do you understand?”  
“Technically speaking, comparing our training, there’s a good chance that our definitions of ‘needless risk’ and ‘calculable risk’ varies considerably…”  
“Do you understand?” repeated Danny, putting emphasis on every syllable.  
“Yesterday, you told me it was rude to interrupt other people.”  
“Either you understood or you will have to look for another partner,” Danny hissed, meaning it this time. All he received was a nod.  
That was not an agreement; this was merely acknowledgment that he had heard him. Before he could launch into this big pile of a mess, Steve reminded him that he had to turn left if he did not want to miss the right exit for the base.  
It turned out that traveling with the commanding officer of a SEAL platoon had its advantages in regards to parking on the base. When the sixth sailor stopped to salute Steve, Danny huffed, “Alright, does that always happen when you’re walking around a Naval base? No wonder you think you’re never wrong.”  
Steve did not take the jab personally. Instead, he laughed, “One thing you need to know about the Navy: as long as the word ‘classified’ isn’t written anywhere, everybody knows about it. The Navy is basically just one big grapevine, which is a natural consequence from spending most of our time on top of each other. Normally, they don’t react much. Every sailor on the base heard about yesterday, though, and they’re pretty good at putting names to faces.”  
“Got it.”   
Purposefully, Steve walked towards a building and entered it, Athena happily trailing after him.  
His team was already assembled. They automatically rose from their seats when Steve entered, but did not go into formation. Considering that Steve gave no indication that this was unusual told Danny that his style of leadership was rather lenient, especially for an elite troop of sailors; Athena enthusiastically greeted her former handler before she trailed back to Steve without being prompted to do so by either party. The sly grin on Torres’ face confirmed the lieutenant commander’s earlier suspicion that Athena had been given to him on purpose.  
Steve held out his hand and LT Simmons immediately handed him a stack of paper. He carefully but quickly read through handwritten reports.  
“Good job,” said the lieutenant commander and the men straightened slightly at the praise. “Torres, you might want to get into more detail regarding Athena’s signalling in your report for the captain. He doesn’t know her as well as I do.”  
“Sure thing, sir.”  
“Harper, it’s ‘USS Arizona Memorial’, not ‘memorail’, otherwise good job. Marquis, this is good enough for my own report, but where’s your personal report for the captain?”  
“Personal report, sir?” asked Marquis, looking stiff and stressed within seconds.  
“Shit, that’s my fault, McGarrett,” said Simmons, looking angry with himself. “I forgot.”  
Steve’s lips formed a forgiving smile.   
“I don’t think any of us were at our best yesterday. Marquis is in my Fire Team, I should’ve remembered. Marquis, don’t worry. This is on us. You can sit with me, write your report, while I write mine.”  
“Thank you, sir.”  
Mitchell walked up to Steve. “I took the liberty to gather some intel on what HPD found out yesterday. I narrowed down the list of witnesses to the people closest to Emily and the unknown hostile; the list includes contact information and their statements to the HPD. I further made contact with the Crime Lab, specifically Dr. Charles Fong, the forensic lab scientist in charge of this case and his boss, Dr. Ronald Goldman, who has promised full cooperation. Next to the bomb, and Emily’s personal affects and clothing, they have also collected about twenty different cell phones that had been in use during the incident. Since we have better equipment and more experience in terms of voice analysis, I’ve suggested that all cell phones should be brought to you, so that your contacts at NI can take care of it.”  
During the tall man’s speech, Steve had given his full attention, listening to every word. Once the Navy SEAL was finished with his report, he handed over some more paper and straightened. In turn, his commanding officer smiled, “Outstanding work, Mitchell. Excellent job! This will bring today’s investigation much further than I could’ve hoped. Thank you, petty officer.”  
Steve praising his men was not an unusual occurrence; Danny could see that from the way they behaved, but Mitchell’s back still straightened and his eyes gleamed, gladly taking the praise. As if noticing Danny’s scrutiny, Steve addressed everyone in the room, “I know I said it yesterday, but let me just tell you again that it’s an honor to serve alongside men like you. Yesterday, you went above and beyond and it is appreciated.” What he received in return were a couple of nods, a few smiles and O’Reilly rising from his seat effectively dwarving Danny in the process, “Yeah, well, if that isn’t an attempt to make us bring you coffee unprompted, I don’t know what is, sir.” The room instantly relaxed, a couple of them were laughing. Steve grinned boyishly. “The usual?”  
“Yes, please,” answered Steve. He then returned his attention to the stack of paper in front of him.   
“Williams, you can either come with me and learn where you can get the best coffee on the base or tell me how you prefer your coffee.”  
“Coming,” said Danny immediately, following O’Reilly out. They were followed not by LT Simmons as expected but by Torres and a man who introduced himself as Tim Davis: the Petty Officer First Class was the shortest of the group, though still around three inches taller than Danny.  
“So, what is your story, Williams?” asked O’Reilly as soon as the doors closed behind him.  
“Not a very interesting one, I’m afraid,” Danny said, but O’Reilly obviously did not buy it.  
“I know you are a homocide detective who spent most of his life and career in New Jersey. You moved here a year ago, but NPD was less than thrilled to let you go, so your reasons had to be personal. I assume it has to do with that brilliant ray of sunshine that is your daughter. I know that story, but what I can’t figure out is McGarrett’s reaction to you.”  
“How the hell do you know about…?”  
“If you think we would let you partner up with members of our team without familiarizing ourselves your background, you neglected to listen properly when McGarrett introduced the purpose of SEAL Team 9,” Torres chimed in.  
“What I’ve come to realize is that you guys have no concept for privacy,” Danny grumbled, in equal measure annoyed and impressed.  
“No shit, Sherlock,” O’Reilly quipped. “Here’s what confuses me: you’re the least obvious stray he’s ever taken in.”  
“Pardon?”  
“McGarrett picks up strays all the time. The ones that don’t fit anywhere. Look at Chin Kelly: undeniable skill, highly capable, but on his own. Kalakaua also fits: young, with promise, largely avoided and mostly alone for reasons outside of her control. McGarrett excels with those. Our team is filled with one or the other, or do you think every platoon looks like ours? Hell, Mitchell will soon considerably contribute to the tiny number of African American SEAL officers. Not to say he wouldn’t have made it on his own, but McGarrett made his path so much easier by not going for the usual approach of harassing promising candidates to excellence, a methodology he’s all too familiar with. Simmons nearly threw in the towel one year in before Hart and McGarrett took him under their wing. Torgerson is basically one oversized, orphaned puppy, but that’s not my story to tell. Hayes has a story, too. Both would die for McGarrett, not just because that’s what we do, but because they adore him.”  
“Then what’s your story, O’Reilly?” asked Danny, amused.  
“I’m just your regular 25-years-with-the-Navy-16-with-the-SEALs kinda guy. I simply transitioned from our old CO Lieutenant Commander Joe White to our current CO McGarrett, that’s all.”  
“The sly grins on Torres’ and Davis’ faces tell me a different story.”  
“Of all the members in our platoon, I’m the only one who witnessed former Lieutenant McGarrett become the undisputed leader he is today. I never served under someone so young, definitely not one I helped train. I thought it wouldn’t work out, but it did, because he always respected and valued my experience over his own rank. That is not to say he did not have opinions, but what you said about him believing he’s never wrong? True, but mostly because his gut instinct is the best I’ve ever come across of.” For a moment, he was quiet before he grinned knowingly. “Nice demonstration of your skill, detective, but that still doesn’t tell me your story.”  
“It doesn’t have to,” said Danny, not unkind. “I know exactly what he saw.”  
There was no question why Steve had picked him up. A kama'aina (he had lived in Hawaii long enough to know that term, thank you very much) would recognize a haole from a mile away. On the boat he would have figured out that he was divorced and had a daughter he loved more than life itself. By the time they were in the debriefing room Steve would have noticed that, apart from Duke and Meka, Danny had few friends at HPD despite his obvious skill as a detective.  
Outsider.   
Reject.   
Stray.  
None of these terms were completely groundless in connection to Danny. He was a fish out of the water…or a cat in the ocean if he wanted to use a more accurate analogy (he could swim, but not happily).  
If Steve truly liked to take people under his wing that did not fit anywhere, Danny was a prime example.  
“How come you guys arrived together today?” asked Davis switching topics and Danny’s hackles were up instantly.  
“If you’re implying what I think you’re implying, then…”   
“No, sheesh!” interrupted Davis. “Wow, and they say the Navy SEALs compose of too much heterosexual testosterone resulting in a homophobic and sexist environment. Which may be true for some platoons, but it definitely ain’t an issue in ours. Just to be clear, I don’t give a fuck who you fuck, that’s your business, not mine. I know you didn’t fuck McGarrett because he was barely able to stand up straight and he would have fallen asleep as soon as he hit a mattress, or sat on a chair for that matter.”  
Not even wanting to explore the meaning of what Davis had just implied, Danny decided to say, “You got that right. He fell asleep in my car on our way to his house.”  
O’Reilly stopped in his tracks, “What?”  
“He fell asleep in the car, and woke up once we were at his house from where I picked him up this morning. Why are you looking at me like this?”  
“Nothing,” said O’Reilly as they entered some coffee house where he ordered enough coffee for everyone. It was clear how well he knew his men since he did not hesitate for a second to fire off his order, while Danny gave his own. “Just… unusual, is all.”  
“McGarrett was exhausted just like you said,” Danny felt the need explain, “he was more asleep than awake by the time we left.”  
O’Reilly nodded, but he did not give any further comment; instead he paid up and grabbed the cups of coffee. Davis, Torres and Danny helped him.  
“So, looking forward to your time on R&R?” Danny changed the subject.  
“Dear Lord, yes,” replied Davis. “I’m gonna be on full-time Daddy duty of my eleven-year-old daughter and I’ll love every second of it.” That comment led to them setting down the coffees for a photo sharing session between the three very proud fathers and Torres’ rolling his eyes.  
“Oh, you wait,” O’Reilly chuckled. “One day, Mrs. Maria Torres will tell you that you guys are having a baby and you’ll be the most obnoxious, oversharing idiot of us all.“  
“Tell me a bit about your baby girl,” the man continued, addressing Danny. “My Jenny is already sixteen and, while I wouldn’t change any of my time with her for the world, they will never be more daddy’s little girls than when they are between six and nine. Before that, they’re mommy’s babies.”  
“Really?” Danny did not mean to sound that skeptical, it was just… “Grace was my little girl basically the second she was born. I always took the night shifts and was the one giving baths and I could swear I changed more diapers than Rachel.”  
O’Reilly beard curled into a smile, his eyes regretful, “Then you are a lucky, lucky man. Every second with them is a fucking privilege. Every moment… even if it’s smelly as hell. I’ve missed so much of their lives in the name of duty, especially when they were small… when they have the worst memory ever and you return from a mission and they start crying because they don’t remember you….” The big bad SEAL looked away, his voice breaking in the process and Danny’s heart ached with sympathy. “I wasn’t there for Carl’s birth and was deployed for two years on Jenny’s second birthday. Thankfully, my wife’s an angel and she always does her best to tell stories of their daddy. Doesn’t mean the first days back home weren’t hell when they were little…”  
“I’m sorry, man,” said Danny gently, which earned him a smile.  
“You know those stupid ‘soldiers surprising their families’ videos on YouTube?” O’Reilly asked and Danny nodded, though he did not watch them much. While the emotion was real, the purpose of it was highly manipulative and reminded him too much of propaganda.  
“A video of you out there?” asked Danny, to show he was engaged.  
“God no, that would be the day, but what it doesn’t show you is the mountain of paper work it takes. McGarrett managed to get me home for my daughter’s tenth birthday. He had just become our platoon leader and we were drowning in work. Yet, he did it.”  
Torres’ usually very reckless demeanor turned solemn, “Yeah, did I ever tell you that he came to my father’s funeral?”  
“No,” replied Davis sounding surprised. “I thought your dad died during our last long R&R session. You didn’t tell us about it until after leave was over. And McGarrett was working with another SEAL team at the time.”  
“Yeah well, he found out. Arrived in his dress blues, looking like one of those classic movie heroes. My mother was so honored. My father could not serve,” explained Torress to Danny. “He always wanted to, but an accident right after enlisting, which bound him to a cane for the rest of his life. It meant the world to my family that Steve gave him a military farewell. He even gave a small speech about how my father had made this country proud.”  
The rest of their return was silent and solemn and less than half an hour after their return (it turned out, SEALs were as dependent on coffee as cops), all but Hayes and Torgerson bid their farewell to Danny. Somehow, Steve managed to take his time to talk to every single one of them in a semi-private setting.   
By the time everyone was gone, it was time to meet with Captain Carlson and Governor Denning. As they entered some debriefing room, Danny saw that next to the two expected players, there were three more people inside.  
While the only man wore dress blues and one of the women fatigues, the other wore civilian clothes, but the way she held herself shouted military training. While all three were almost insultingly attractive, both women could effortlessly apply for a Miss America contest. The one wearing blue-dominated fatigues had dark hair (in accordance with regulation), was tall, thin and when her lips turned into as smile upon seeing Steve, looked absolutely gorgeous. Her pale skin contrasted with the African American lady in civilian clothing who was even taller than her, wore shoulder-long hair that was tamed by a hairband but not quite military standard. She had high cheekbones and her eyes gleamed when she saw Steve. The white man in dress blues, no matter how formidable he looked, literally paled in comparison to these two ladies.  
Steve entered all the way, saluted Captain Carlson, and greeted Governor Denning before he pulled the man into a hug. It took a second for Danny’s irritation to subside (why would McGarrett hug the guy if he could hug these two women?), but then he realized that Steve’s informal ‘hello’ was according to rank.   
“Good to see you, Billy,” smiled Steve before he hugged the lady in civilian clothing, “Kayla, it’s been too long.” Then, there was a minute moment of hesitation, before he turned and hugged the only remaining person, “Lieutenant Rollins, how are you?”  
He smiled brilliantly at them, even as he stood straight to salute them and Danny’s insides twisted yet again in a way he did not want to explore further.  
“Commander,” began Captain Carlson. “Lieutenant Comm… Apologies, old habits die hard… Special Agent Turner has immediately agreed to work in your task force. Lieutenant Commander Harrington’s unit is entirely avaiable for your investigation. LT Catherine Rollins will be your direct liasion. Is that alright with you?”  
“Yes, sir, I couldn’t ask for better support,” smiled Steve.  
“I thought so. Now, I’ve contacted Special Agent Farzad. He’s indeed in the country and on his way here. Dr. Maja Hill has also agreed and will take the next available flight. She’s usually much harder to convince, but apparently working with you is a strong incentive.”  
“This sounds perfect, sir. Do we have any rooms available on the base?”  
“Actually,” Governor Denning chimed in. “We have rooms for you outside of the base. While this Task Force is Navy-led, we believe that it would be best for you to set up camp at a semi-neutral location: not the base, not HPD.”  
Less than an hour later, they were in a beautiful government building, which was already being equipped with all kind of modern gadgets. Naval officers so busy they had barely time to salute Captain Carlson, Steve, Billy or Catherine, walked in and out of the rooms as they helped installing everything. The team, almost casually thrown together, had used their time to familiarize themselves with each other. Steve had the huge advantage of knowing everybody and he played a rather impressive mediator…Not that a mediator was necessary; Danny liked them all. He was also 95% sure that Billy and Catherine were an item; Kayla had a very serene air about her. There seemed to be very little that could rile her up. By the time they arrived, she was already very tight with Kono becoming what could only be called ‘terrifying sisters in arms’ with Kono as the ten-year younger spitfire sister and Kayla the focused, no-nonsense older sister. It became even more terrifying when Catherine got involved. At that point, the only one who did not seem too worried was the man with no apparent sense of self-preservation, which was apparently a Steve-thing as his fellow SEALs all bowed to the supperiority of their female teammates. But then, Steve was the teamleader and he was used to being one, so it was likely difficult to intimidate him.  
“Alright,” said Steve all of a sudden. “Let’s get to it. Danny, you and I will be going to the hospital to talk to Emily. Torgerson, Hayes, you make sure everything is set up properly. Make yourselves at home. Chin, read through the witness statements, see what and where we need to follow up on. Kono, Kayla, go to the lab, meet with Dr. Charles Fong, make a connection and see what kind of physical evidence was collected. Kayla, please set up a channel with our labs afterwards, so that we can provide Hamid with the curated tapes. The phones should be in our hands by the time your return from your visit to Dr. Fong. Kono, you help Chin. Billy, Cath, thanks for you help so far. I’ll contact you with an update tonight and then we’ll coordinate. Let’s get to work, people.”


	6. Chapter 4 Interlude (In Memoriam)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On their way to the hospital, Steve and Danny have an interesting encounter. (Interlude)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for neglecting this story (or writing in general). Real life has been... dominant in recent weeks. I am well, though, don't worry, I'm just very busy.
> 
> Please be aware that this is not a real chapter. This interlude is not really part of the plot, so bear with me. I realized that I needed to get this off my chest first before I could return to business as usual.
> 
> Thank you for your continued support and apologies for not replying.
> 
> I hope to publish a real chapter soon.

_**In Memoriam** _

Steve, Danny and Athena were walking through the parking lot of their new headquarters towards detective’s car when a gentleman in his sixties stepped out of his black jeep and made a beeline for them; his eyes were trained on Athena. Steve stiffened, but the Belgian Malinois remained calm and relaxed as she watched the man approach. The stranger held his hand out and made a short, encouraging exclamation. Athena, usually one to look for permission before approaching strangers, immediately jumped forward, her tail wagging enthusiastically.

The tall, elderly gentleman with curly white hair seemed strong, possibly military trained, and if not, given his stance and appearance, he had probably held a leadership position. He also looked like someone who used to do a lot of sports, but judging by his midsection, was now enjoying his retirement in an easier manner. The stranger smiled as he roughly stroked the dog’s ears, head and side, and Athena in turn was behaving like a puppy the entire time to the point of begging for more attention by whimpering melodramatically. The Navy commander just rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“Good dog,” said the man softly before addressing Steve. “I haven’t seen such a nice Malinois in a long time. Very nice gait, good bone structure, well-trained. Is she a police dog?”

“MWD, actually, sir,” replied Steve regarding the older man closely. He spoke like a dog breeder.

“Excuse me?” said the man, his voice was raised to just a bit above the normal volume; his head tilted slightly to the side. Having recognized the man’s apparent hardness of hearing, particularly in his right ear, Steve came a bit closer and spoke slowly and clearly to the stranger’s left ear.

“She’s a military working dog, sir. She’s retired now, though.”

“Not because of an injury, surely,” replied the other man, frowning, his eyes closely examining the dog, which was now showing her belly, waiting to be further cuddled. “She can’t be older than six either.”

“She’s not, but we don’t want to risk her health by sending her to another mission now that she’ll soon be past her prime.”

“I see,” said the man, his focus on Athena who looked like she would follow him if asked, which was more than a little unusual. “Well, let me know if you need someone to take her in. I’m willing to pay for her, too.”

“I don’t intend on letting her go, but I might be grateful for someone to watch her from time to time. What’s your name, sir?” asked Steve. After getting a name and the address out of the man, they further learned that not only had he bred dogs his entire adult life, he also used to be a judge at dog shows. His focus had always been on healthy, strong dogs rather than fancy ones, though, and he viciously critized breeders and judges that put so-called beauty over the animal’s wellbeing.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, sir,” said Steve after Danny reminded them that they were expected at the hospital. The stranger’s intelligent eyes met theirs and he smiled.

“I’ll leave you to your duties, officers. You have my address. Feel free to visit whenever you want. Make sure to bring her.”

And with that, he left with a wave and a ‘ciao’ on his lips. Athena did not try to follow, but her eyes followed him until his car pulled out of the parking lot.

“Question 1: We didn’t mention we were cops, so how does he know? Second, he’s not German,” said Danny. “His name suggests German, but his accent says not.”

“Answer to your first question: I think your tie gave away our game,” Danny just rolled his eyes at that. “About your second question, I agree,” confirmed Steve. “Dutch perhaps?”

“Maybe,” mused Danny.

“I think I’ll visit him after this case is over,” announced the taller man as he stepped into the Camaro, Athena happily following suit.

“Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

Something about the man made Steve want to meet him again. It was hard to say why. He seemed a bit gruff on the outside, but behind the gruffness and sharp mind, there was an innate kindness to him that Steve had seen in those commanding officers he generally tried to emulate now that he had his own command. You could always learn a lot from people like that. Given that this man’s expertise was dogs, Steve would certainly become a better handler in the process.

As Danny turned on the engines, their minds slowly turned from this encounter to the case at hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my friend, honorary uncle and mentor:   
> Thank you for everything you taught me about animals, dogs and reptiles in particular. Thank you for teaching me to take people as they are and not trying to mould them into what we want them to be. Thank you for encouraging me and for contributing to my career path in medicine and science. You were an extraordinary man who positively influenced a lot of lives and we will remember you.

**Author's Note:**

> Athena was inspired by all the H50 fan fiction writers who have pointed out how important MWD's are, also for SEALs.
> 
> Specifically, I want to mention KatieTaylor's story "Vacation's Over" and "Puppy Love" by MissSlothy for Nayra.


End file.
